Conan: The Hyborian Age vs Pathfinder
Compare Conan: The Hyborian Age and Pathfinder side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, cost, and more.
| Conan: The Hyborian Age | Pathfinder | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Classless, Combat-Heavy, Cinematic, Gritty, Licensed IP, Low-Prep, Skill-Based, Strong GM Support, Sword & Sorcery, Tactical | Tactical, Crunchy, Character Building, High-Fantasy, Dungeon Crawl, Lore-Heavy |
| Core Mechanic | Roll a Stat die, add the Stat value and modifiers, and meet or exceed a GM-set Difficulty. Player characters also roll a separate Flex die with nearly every roll; a maximum result triggers a choice such as gaining Stamina, turning failure into success, refunding sorcery costs, or inflicting Massive Damage. | Roll d20 + modifier against a DC. Four degrees of success: critical success (beat DC by 10+), success, failure, and critical failure (miss by 10+). Each turn grants three actions to spend freely on strikes, movement, spellcasting, or other activities. Multi-attack penalty (-5/-10) discourages repeated strikes and encourages tactical variety. |
| Dice | d6–d10 | d20 |
| Complexity | Medium | High |
| Accessibility | High | Very High |
| Runnability | Very High | Very High |
| License | All Rights Reserved | ORC |
| Third-Party Publishing | No verified route found | Commercial publishing allowed — Open and compatibility licenses |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Cost | $$ | Free |
| Publisher | Monolith Board Games SARL | Paizo |
| Year | 2025 | 2023 |
| Best For | Groups who want combat-forward Conan adventures of treasure hunting in lost cities and ancient tombs. Sorcery is rare and costly. | Groups who want deep character customization, tactical grid combat with meaningful turn-by-turn decisions, and a richly detailed fantasy setting with free rules. |
| Highlights | A player-only Flex die turns maximum results into immediate choices such as automatic success, Stamina, a sorcery refund, or Massive Damage. Stamina lets characters push movement, rolls, damage, and learned skills when the moment matters. Abstract Range supports combat without a physical map, while optional Areas add map-based positioning without replacing the core procedure. | The three-action economy gives every turn the same three actions to spend on strikes, movement, or spells, so each turn is a fresh tactical decision. Characters customize through ancestry, class, skill, and general feats gained at nearly every level, letting builds diverge sharply within a single class. Four degrees of success, set by beating or missing the DC by 10, turn each roll into a range of outcomes rather than a binary result. |
| Considerations | Combat asks players to track action economy, defenses, and resource state at once. Sorcery is restricted by character Origin and can consume Life, Stamina, actions, and ongoing upkeep. Wealth and noncombat possessions are abstract, while difficulty, encounter tuning, and dramatic interventions rely on GM judgment. | New players must learn the trait system, conditions, and four degrees of success before combat runs smoothly. Multi-attack penalty and numerous combat actions can slow turns for indecisive players. Character creation draws feats from ancestry, class, skill, and general pools at every level, making each build a slow step. |